Effective communication of CSR

Du et al. (2010) stated that by engaging in corporate social responsibility activities, companies can not only generate favorable stakeholder attitudes and better support behaviors such as seeking employment, but also, over the long run, build corporate image as well as strengthen stakeholder-company relationships.

However, stakeholders’ low awareness of and unfavorable attributions towards companies’ CSR activities remain critical impediments in companies’ attempts to maximize business benefits from their CSR activities, highlighting a need for companies to communicate CSR more effectively to stakeholders. (Du et al., 2010) Since creating stakeholder awareness of and managing stakeholder

attributions towards a company’s CSR activities are key prerequisites for reaping CSR’s strategic benefits, it is imperative to have a deeper understanding of key issues related to CSR communication. These include questions surrounding what to communicate (message content), where to communicate (message channel), as well as an understanding of the company- and stakeholder-specific factors that impact the effectiveness of CSR communication. (Du et al., 2010)

As stated earlier, it is imperative to have a deeper understanding of key issues related to CSR communication. Therefore, in this chapter the findings regarding research questions “How to communicate about corporate social responsibility effectively to young job seekers?” and “Through what kind of channels of communication can young adults be best reached?” are analyzed and discussed.

In order to find out what young job seekers think about L&T’s communication in general and how well they know L&T’s different communication channels, different issue related propositions were presented in the survey’s third section “CSR communications visibility and awareness”.

As companies have a growing need to find more efficient ways to communicate with their stakeholders, the Internet has become a great tool for reaching stakeholders around the clock. According to Jo and Jung (2005) Internet allows companies to present their agenda and messages on CSR at lower cost and reduced time as well as deliver this message to a large audience without being controlled or manipulated by other entities. Thus social media channels utilized for CSR communication were studied. Social media offers companies broader opportunities and new challenges in communicating and engaging with their stakeholders by enabling new kinds of individualized interaction between companies and its stakeholders. Compared to the classic model of CSR communication in which corporate communication professionals were acting as gatekeepers, the new model allows almost anyone to be heard through, for example blogs, and social networking sites (Cornelissen, 2011).

Firstly respondents’ were asked how often they have visited different L&T’s communication channels or if they are aware them. L&T’s communication uses

various channels - social media as well as traditional communication channels. In this research the following social media channels, which are used by L&T’s communication, are studied: Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin and blogs.

Other traditional communication channels are LASSI -web based magazine, L&T’s homepage and corporate responsibility report.

Table 8. Awareness and usage of L&T’s communication channels

The clearest result, which can be seen from the Table 8, is that most of the respondents were not aware of the presented communication channels. Here one of the most typical obstacles in communicating about CSR, stakeholders’ poor awareness, is visible. Due to the results, option “I am not aware of and I have not visited” was the most popular one. Based on the answers, the most known communication channels among respondents were L&T’s homepage and Facebook -page. Then again, the least known were LASSI -web magazine, Twitter and Linkedin.

In order to gain a clear understanding on through what kind of communication channels young adults can be best reached, respondents’ were represented with different social media channels and asked to choose the best answer option based on usage (Table 9). To generalize, use of Linkedin and Twitter is rarer than the use of Facebook and Youtube that then again are the most used social media channels. Instagram divides opinions, since there are almost the same amount of answers on ”I do not use at all” and ”I use a lot”.

Table 9. Usage of social media channels

To measure attitudes towards L&T’s CSR communication, respondents’ were presented with an example of L&T’s CSR communication. It is important that the message content and channels are be carefully designed since different stakeholders have different expectations and need for information. According to Du et al. (2010) it is also essential to maintain the consistency of the message throughout these multiple of communication. The example of L&T’s CSR communication was the following, a slogan in the garbage truck.

”It is easy to transform ketchup bottle into fuel or tuna can into fork. A lot difficult is to change people’s way of thinking.”

The respondents were asked if they recall seeing these slogans as many of L&T’s garbage trucks have similar slogans that reflect company’s responsibility. Out of 93 respondents, 49 recognized it. Next respondents were asked what they thought about L&T’s CSR communication. The given slogan worked as an example if the respondent was not familiar with L&T’s responsible communication.

Table 10. Attitudes towards L&T’s CSR communication

The results were mostly positive since only few of the respondents were completely or somewhat disagreeing with the statements as seen from the Table 10. Thereby, respondents mostly felt agreeing with the fact that based on L&T’s CSR communication they want to know more about the company, L&T’s CSR communication is memorable, clear and it speaks to them. However, statement ”L&T communicates adequately about their responsibility” had the most answers, which indicates that L&T needs to invest more in responsible communication that appeals to young job seekers. When the answers are examined based on the respondents’ knowledge on L&T’s responsible communication, it was noticed that respondents who knew the presented slogan before were agreeing more to the presented statements.

Now as respondents knowledge of L&T’s CSR communication and CSR communication channels is clarified, more specific information about communication channels and how and where to communicate can be analyzed by utilizing Wilcoxon signed rank test. It was used to reveal if there are differences between results of the knowledge of L&T’s communication channels and the usage of them. Based on the test results, Youtube and Facebook are communication channels that have statistically significant results. As you can see from the Figures 14 and 15, the knowledge of the L&T’s communication channel and usage of them differs. These two communication channels have the same situation. By reviewing results from the Tables 8 and 10, it can be seen that respondents use Youtube and Facebook on a regular basis but did not have knowledge of L&T’s communication is these channels.

Figure 14. Knowledge of L&T’s Youtube channel and usage of Youtube (p=0,00)

Figure 15. Knowledge of L&t’s Facebook page and usage of Facebook (p=0,00)

Mann-Whitney test was utilized to find out if there were differences between respondents’ knowledge of L&T’s CSR communication and opinions about L&T’s CSR communication (Figure 16). When reviewing the results of the test, it reveals that respondents who already knew about L&T’s CSR communication had more positive reaction to the statements related to L&T’s CSR communication.

Figure 16. Knowledge of L&T’s CSR communication and opinion on it

Respondents, who knew about L&T’s CSR communication before answering to the survey, felt that companies that communicate about their CSR draw attention

(Figure 17). Thereby, young job seekers who value CSR and have knowledge about it, also pays attention to companies CSR and their CSR communications.

The same trend continues when the differences between variables concerning appreciation towards companies that communicates about their CSR and the knowledge of L&T’s CSR communication (Figure 18).

Figure 17. Companies that communicate about CSR draws attention and the knowledge of CSR communication

Figure 18. Appreciation towards companies that communicate about their CSR and the knowledge of L&T’s CSR communication